Totally Unrelated to IF

As of today, I’ll be consuming copious amounts of herbs in pill form each day for a month. I gave in and decided to try the herbal route as well as the acupuncture route. I figured today would be the day Dr. I. would talk to me about the herbs. I guess she didn’t want to start me off with too much too early, which may be why she didn’t mention them for last cycle. She said she’s had women get pregnant just using the herbs, so I figured what the heck. They do add a little bit of $ to my total bill each week, but they’re still less than any meds the RE would put me on. Plus, they’re natural, “organic” versions of those meds. There are four phases of the herbs. I take five pills twice a day (that’s 10 pills!) today through Saturday, then Sunday I’ll start phase two. That’ll be four pills twice a day, for a week. We didn’t talk about phase three and four.

Have any of you tried herbal medicine for IF? I’d love to hear any stories from anyone who has used herbs.

I did call my RE to let her (or her nurses, since I never actually talk to her) know I’m taking the herbs. I figure it’s good to let them in on what extra things I’m doing.

I’m trying really hard not to look too far into the future. I keep feeling like I need to nail down in my head what our current plan is, how long we’ll do acupuncture, if and when we’ll do another IUI, and if not, what we’ll do next, what Dr. H. will tell us in our appointment on the 12th, etc. But worrying about all that will do nothing. Nothing. It won’t get me pg any faster, it won’t make anything happen any differently than it’s already going to happen. This whole journey has been such a lesson in letting go of control…and I don’t know how well I’m doing in this lesson.

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Letting go of control! It’s harder for some of us isn’t it. That’s the lesson I’m trying to learn now… to just let go and live life. I have no experience with herbs or acupuncture but I must confess I’ve dabbled with the ideas in my mind but just never really took it up. Good luck with the herbs

Here from Lost and Found- I’ve been doing powdered herbs, with my acupuncturist changing the formula to coincide with the phases of the four week cycle since October. I had an IVF in January with more eggs and better quality than I’ve had in more than a year.
The powders are mixed into water to make a “tea” which can taste quite vile, but I am sticking with the herbs for now, and my RE told me not to change a thing, but doesn’t seem very concerned with what is in the herbs.
Good luck to you!

Here from lost and foudn as well. I made those nasty teas, same as jp, totally vile, i did it for 6 months prior to my IVF, had a good response to the stimulation drugs, much much better that what the RE thought I would do, but, i had lining issues, that were severe and could not be fixed from TCM, so I didn’t get to transfer those great little embies.
Best of luck to you!

I’ve done it and believe it can help. However, I didn’t stay on them long enough (Too $$$) for her to get the mixture just right. Be aware that it can take them a while to get the right dose/herbs for you as they are going on results, not on blood tests or anything. That was my main frustration with it.

On the flip side, she was the only one who helped me with horrible complications after an endometrial biopsy. They went on for a month, but when she treated me, she had it under control within a week and a half.

I tried the herbs but only did it for one month so not sure how effective that would be. I also did the ones that are mixed into a “tea” form and could barely swallow them without puking which sort of led me to giving them up. I would consider trying them again if I could do it with pills.

I did Chinese herbs with acupuncture for about a year prior to starting IVF. At the beginning I was hopeful that the herbs/acu alone would work for me. Did it all help with getting IVF to work? I have no idea.

Sometimes my herbs were dried, to be made into a tea, sometimes they were capsules and sometimes they were little pills. Sometimes 48 per day!

My TCM gal had me on powdered herbs (much less repulsive than the boiled tea) and they did wonders for improving my cycle, though I didn’t get pregnant–I wasn’t taking the herbs solely to encourage pregnancy, however. Herbs, like needles, take time to have an effect, so be patient if you can. I have to say that TCM improved my general health tremendously.

I am also childless and have done rounds of Clomid- I am starting FertilityBlend see (fertilityblend.com) and have heard gobs of women successfully conceive with Vitex- Chaste Berry. After rounds of treatment and roller coaster emotions I think- herbs can’t hurt! Good luck to you.